Direct hire a domestic helper in Kuala Lumpur, for RM2,880

Who is direct hire for?

Households in the Klang Valley who already know who they want to employ. That covers more people than it sounds like it would.

• Your helper’s two-year contract is ending and you both want to continue.
• A relative or a friend is releasing their helper and has recommended her to you.
• She worked for you before, went home, and is willing to come back.
• You’re relocating to Kuala Lumpur and bringing the helper you already employ abroad.

What these have in common is that the matching has already happened. If you don’t have a candidate, direct hire isn’t your product and we’ll tell you so on the call. Full placement is the one you want, at RM17,800 before salary, and it covers sourcing, training and certification.

What does RM2,880 cover in Kuala Lumpur?

1. Her medical, arranged and paid for in-countryWe know which clinics Indonesia and the Philippines accept, and we pay them directly. You won’t be phoning clinics in a language you don’t read or working out how to transfer money to a candidate in a village with no bank.
2. Biometrics and the visa applicationWe tell you exactly which documents we need from you. Everything after that is ours: the appointments, the calling visa, the forms and the follow-up calls that make this so tedious to do yourself.
3. Source-country compliance, training and certificationIndonesia and the Philippines both require their workers to be trained and certified before they leave, and both check it. We handle that side so your file isn’t rejected at the last step.
4. Arrival, from the flight to your front doorFlight booking, airport pickup, insurance and permit issuance. You stay home.

How do you bring a helper from Indonesia to Malaysia to work?

Through the Indonesian system, which is the part households underestimate. Indonesia protects its domestic workers on the way out, and it checks the paperwork on the way out. Your candidate has to be documented as a migrant worker in Indonesia before Malaysia will issue anything, which means a medical at an accredited clinic, training and certification, and an employment contract the Indonesian mission will endorse.

You can verify that the agency handling this is registered: Indonesia publishes its licensed recruiters on the SIPERMIT register, and we’re on it. Do check. An unregistered channel is how a household ends up with a candidate who can’t legally leave.

Give credit where it’s due: this system is why Indonesian domestic workers arrive with a verified contract and a certificate instead of a verbal promise. It’s also slow, and the burden of the slowness lands on a woman waiting in a village without income. We think both things are true.

How do you bring a helper from the Philippines to Malaysia to work?

Through the Department of Migrant Workers, and it’s stricter. A Filipino domestic worker needs her contract registered with the DMW, training to NCII standard, and an Overseas Employment Certificate before she can board. We hold Migrant Workers Office accreditation, MWO-KL / 02-25, which is what lets us register a contract for you.

Expect it to take longer than an Indonesian hire and expect the salary to be higher. A Filipino helper’s contract salary is RM1,800 a month against RM1,500 for an Indonesian helper, and the Philippines enforces its floor. Any agency offering you a Filipino helper below the DMW minimum is telling you something about how they operate.

How long does a Kuala Lumpur direct hire take?

We haven’t published a Peninsular Malaysia figure yet, and we’re not going to borrow the Sarawak one. Different authority, different medical provider, different queue. Our Kuching direct hires run 8 to 10 weeks for an Indonesian candidate and 12 to 14 for a Filipino one, and those numbers are earned from files we’ve actually filed in Sarawak.

Kuala Lumpur is a launch. When we’ve filed enough federal cases to state a range honestly, it goes on this page. Until then, ask on the call and we’ll tell you what we’re seeing this month.

What happens if the employment doesn’t work out?

Sometimes it doesn’t, and a household that can’t see the exit price is a household that stays in a bad arrangement. So here it is. Termination is quoted per case and these are the rates.

The gap between the two routes is the useful part. A settlement your helper signs costs RM1,500 whichever passport she holds; a dispute costs RM2,500 or RM3,500. If you reach the point of wanting her to leave, call us before you say anything to her. A conversation that ends in a signed settlement is cheaper for you and very much better for her.

What does Kuala Lumpur require that Kuching doesn’t?

A permit issued in Kuala Lumpur does not authorise domestic work in Kuching. If you move to Sarawak with your helper, that is a fresh application to a different authority.

Decided by

Immigration Department of Malaysia, federally

Medical

FOMEMA, on arrival

What you hold at the end

A federal Visit Pass (Temporary Employment) for domestic service

Service fee

RM2,880 service fee, before government costs and the helper’s salary

• Hiring in Kuching instead Sarawak’s own permit system.
• Relocating with your helper

What do we ask of you in return?

One thing. Keep to the contract you sign. We’ll do the filing, the chasing and the arrival logistics, and the price holds as long as the employment itself is lawful. This is the part of a direct hire that an agency would otherwise supervise for you, and it is now yours.

• Pay the salary in the contract, in full, on time, into an account in her name.
• Give her the rest day the contract provides, or pay the overtime rate instead.
• Register her with PERKESO and keep the contributions current.
• Renew her permit before it lapses. A lapsed permit is your offence, not hers.